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Perry defeats White in race for Texas gov

KELLEY SHANNON, AP Political Writer

Posted:
11/03/2010 12:45:42 AM MDT

Gov. Rick Perry speaks to a roomful of El Paso Republicans on Friday at the El Paso Community College Administrative Services Center. AP has projected that Perry will win reelection. (Times file photo)

With 12 percent of precincts reporting, Perry had 57 percent of the vote compared with White's 41 percent. Perry hammered hard all year on the theme that the Texas economy is better than many states and that hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created during his decade in office.

He repeatedly criticized President Barack Obama and national Democrats and tried to link White to them.

The race between Perry and White, the Democrats' best hope in years to win the Texas' top office, was long and expensive. Both candidates spent millions of dollars airing television ads and trekking around Texas, visiting rural towns and crowded urban neighborhoods. They hammered each other over alleged wrongdoing in office, the state budget shortfall and what's going on in Washington, D.C.

Perry, who became governor when George W. Bush was elected president in 2000, tapped into anti-government fervor and seized opportunities to link White with President Barack Obama and national Democrats.

White, a former Houston mayor and deputy U.S. energy secretary, worked to keep his distance from Obama and steered clear of the president's appearances during Obama's trip to Texas in August.

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In contrast, Perry greeted Obama upon his arrival at the Austin airport - he said he wanted to talk to Obama about border security - and then used a picture of the event in a TV ad to say he'd confronted the Democratic president.

Having never lost a race in his 25 years in state office, Perry relied on a practiced and polished approach to campaigning. He stuck to a couple of main themes, criticizing Washington and boasting that Texas has fared better than much of the nation economically by creating jobs during his tenure.

A starkly different style marked White's campaigning.

Slow-talking and deliberate with his words, White told audiences that while Perry was better at television sound bites, he was better at getting results. He pointed to his record of responding to hurricanes and to property tax cuts when he was leader of Houston for six years.

Tonja Hagy, 45, a Lubbock mother with one grown daughter and two teenagers, voted for White, though she said she was "not exactly thrilled" with him. She liked Perry even less.

"No. 1, I'm a Democrat," Hagy said. "No. 2, I don't think Rick Perry has done what he needs to do with our tax dollars."

Bonnie Salazar, a 53-year-old school district employee in San Antonio, said she normally votes Democratic but supported Perry and other Republicans on Tuesday. She said she was angry at Obama and the federal government over the economy. GOP officials, she said, "seem to be listening to us. The Democrats are not listening and I'm a Democrat saying that."

Voters cast their ballots Tuesday and during two weeks of early voting without ever seeing the two side by side in a televised debate. Perry refused to debate because he said White hadn't released all his tax returns from his years in public service.

Perry also refused to speak to newspaper editorial boards. White ended up pulling in major newspaper endorsements.

White accused Perry of staying in office too long and using state job creation funds to reward his campaign contributors. Perry attacked White over his investment with a company that helped the city in its emergency response during Hurricane Rita.

The race turned even nastier in the final week when Perry launched an ad claiming Houston's policies toward enforcing immigration laws played a role in the shooting death of a police officer who was killed by an illegal immigrant.

White denied the accusation and said Perry was exploiting the officer's grieving widow. He also said Perry's administration removed illegal immigrant sex offenders from a public database once they were deported, but that the names were added back in once White's mayoral office complained.

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Associated Press writers Betsy Blaney in Lubbock and Will Weissert in San Antonio contributed to this report.